In a game long since decided, in a second-half, open-court situation that meant little Friday at Viejas Arena, Devin Watson found himself a passer without a teammate in sight. In front of him, three back-pedaling McNeese State defenders.

Pump the brakes? Pull it out? Wait for reinforcements?

You don’t know Watson, a San Francisco transfer with offensive gears galore and the kind of edgy confidence that screams “straight ahead” like he’s helpless to some physics-bending form of horizontal gravity.

“He’s just an ornery little guy out there, you know?” Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher said. “He plays like he’s a small, little guard with a chip on his shoulder. He plays with a swagger about him.”

That swagger led Watson, a slicing, wiggling, attacking 6-foot-1 bundle of bold to hesitate, cross-over and split the final two defenders for an off-handed layup.

Those were just two of his game-high 20 points in an 83-52 cooling of the Cowboys. The moment, though, signaled the most interesting early-season wrinkle for the Aztecs.

Watson, who piled on a game-high eight assists, finished with just one turnover despite possessing the ball early and often during a game-high 27 minutes. This was McNeese State, not Michigan State or Wichita State, but it left you wondering what this guy might look like in, say, March.

That 1-on-3 situation?

Desperate? Hardly. Decisive? Of course, Watson said.

“That’s when I went to attack mode and finished it,” he said.

No one needs to spit-shine the team MVP trophy for Watson just yet. There’s plenty of time to sort that out on a team with a mature, polished Trey Kell and Malik Pope — a ridiculously high-ceiling guy who can be one of the best players on the West Coast or vanish into a three-game mist.

Plus, there is Watson’s defense. At San Diego State, that’s a lace-em-up prerequisite.

“Coming here, a lot of people didn’t think I was really a defensive player,” Watson said. “I think I learned a lot here defensively, just being in the right spots, guarding the ball.

“Here, you have to play defense. So I had to learn.”

Correction: Still learning.

Dutcher said he and associate head coach Justin Hutson corralled Watson after a 90-68 head-scratcher Tuesday at Arizona State. Sure, the guard nearly finished with a double-double (nine assists, eight points). Sure, he had four rebounds and just two turnovers.

But, defense.

“Justin and I brought him into the office together and showed him all the times against Arizona State where he gave up a blow-by,” Dutcher said. “… We showed him. ‘You have to get better at this.’ We challenged him.

“He did get better today. He had a couple, but he didn’t have as many.”

Offensively, there will be few better than Watson that the Aztecs see all season. In his last season at San Francisco, the Oceanside native finished 27th in the nation in scoring at 20.3 per game.

Ditto all that ability for ball distribution.

If the defense follows, watch out. Then and only then, Watson becomes one of those complete-package guys. Dutcher already sees where that kind of progress can come for a guy with Watson’s frame.

“When you’re undersized, he’s not 6-foot-2 or 3, he’s got to be quick and cut those guys off,” Dutcher said.

Offense is the glory, the headlines, the stuff that draws winks from that girl in Lit class. Defense is sweat, grinding at practice and thinking about everyone but yourself.

Dakarai Allen got that. So did Skylar Spencer. The Aztecs need Watson to get it, too.

This is true, too: Watson is flat-out fabulous to watch. When he’s streaking up court or when the defense nods off on a secondary break, there’s the potential for him to trigger something special.

With about 5 minutes left in the first half, Watson made a crazy-great read on an airborne touch pass to Pope for a layup. About 3 ½ minutes later, he uncorked a behind-the-back dime to Kell for a layup that drew a collective “ooh” from the crowd of 10,702.

As the second half gained steam, Watson calmly gutted the defense with an effortless reverse layup. Another oop to Pope soon followed.

Then, with 10:59 to play and the Aztecs already up 29, he faced that 1-on-3. He looked left. He looked right. He was all alone.